Archived News:

Saturday, Sep 05, 2009

Fallen Earth is now slated to launch on September 22, according to
this
forum post (thanks
Massively/WarCry).
In July a September 9 release date was announced for the
post-apocalyptic MMORPG, but another announcement a couple of weeks
ago told us the launch was pushed back a week to September 15, before this
new word of another week delay (though the countdown timer on the
Fallen Earth Website is still counting
down to the 15th). "Our main focus is to make sure that Fallen Earth is easily
accessible to as many fans as possible," explains Fallen Earth product manager
Jessica Orr. "We are working on initiatives that are near fruition and we simply
need more time." Word is preorder customers will still be able to get their
early access on September 9, and that this delay means early access will run six
days longer than initially planned.

IGN's Videos
and Movies Sections offers four new gameplay movies released at PAX to show
off Left 4 Dead 2, Valve's co-op zombie sequel. The clips are:
Slide,
Highway Fire Katana,
Carousel, and
Baseball Bat. Speaking of the Baseball Bat,
Shacknews has a
response to questions about the revelation that this is an
"exclusive" item for preorders of the game at select retailers. According to
Valve's Chet Faliszek the baseball bat will have its own characteristics, and
will not just be a reskinning of the Cricket Bat. He also clarifies that anyone
playing with someone who has this item will have access to it: "How it'll work
is, if you're playing with somebody that's pre-ordered it, everybody playing
gets it." Finally, there is also a short article on
Gamasutra
based on a conversation with Faliszek, who tells them that releasing Left 4 Dead
2 as a single release as opposed to a series of add-on packs helps make it a
"cohesive single statement."

As mentioned in previous updates, we have been working diligently to
address recent instance capacity issues through a number of reconfigurations and
optimizations. These modifications have been an ongoing effort, and we’re
pleased to announce that the process is now complete on all North American
realms. Since the optimizations, all realms have shown an improvement in
instance performance as well as a noticeable reduction in the amount of players
hitting the instance limit. Please be assured that we will continue to monitor
the situation closely and will make further changes as necessary. As always,
thank you for your patience and understanding regarding this issue.

The
Battle.net Forums offer a progress report on the version 1.13 patch
currently under construction for Diablo II (thanks Ant and
Planet Diablo). Word is the patch,
first announced in April, is going to hit the test realm "soon,"
but they still have no outlook on when it will go live for the full game:

Work commences on patch 1.13. We won't be providing any information on
when the patch will be available, except that we expect the PTR to be available
"soon". We will provide some amount of warning very, very shortly before the
PTRs become available. Please keep in mind that any number of factors could
delay the start of the PTR and ultimate release of the patch. Thanks for being
patient, we're getting close now.

The Project Reality Website is now
serving a new version 0.87 patch for the Project Reality modification for
Battlefield 2. The new version addresses compatibility issues caused by the
new version 1.50 BF2 patch, addresses some other bugs, and implements some "long
needed commander features." Thanks LittleMe.

Letter from Aion Producer Brian Knox on Open Beta on the Aion Website
has an overview of what's going on as NCsoft's MMORPG gears up for its open beta
test, slated to begin tomorrow. The update outlines changes since
the closed beta and includes outlook on other changes coming before the game
launches, including the addition of some of the support elements available to
players of the Korean edition of the game. They also offer a link to the
full
patch notes for the open beta client.

The Man Behind Battle.net- Greg Canessa Speaks on Gamasutra discusses
planned changes to Battle.net with Greg Canessa, the person in charge of
Blizzard's online service. They discuss his background helping create Xbox LIVE
and working at PopCap, the differences between a developer-specific platform and
more open system, a question (that he deftly dodges) over whether Microsoft has
been harming PC gaming lately, more on PC gaming, the Battle.net marketplace,
the possibility of support for new Battle.net features in legacy games such as
Diablo II and StarCraft, and more.

The Mytheon
interview on GameZone chats with Peter Cesario about Mytheon, the
microtransaction-funded MMORPG in the works at Petroglyph Games. They discuss
blending genres, the game's "collectability" aspect, microtransactions,
customization, plans to expand the game over time, integration with social
networks, and more. The conversation is illustrated with some new screenshots.

The PAX teaser trailer for Torchlight offers a look at the action/RPG
from Runic Games that's due next month. The clip starts out with
a little vaguely British blady-blah before cutting to the chase of cutting, as
well as hacking, slashing, and other action from the game. You can find this
clip on AtomicGamer
and Gamer's Hell.

A new trailer from Colin McRae: DiRT 2 paves the way for next week's
release of the rally racing sequel, or unpaves the way, considering the subject
matter. The new clip is called "Jump Jam," and it can be found on the
DiRT2 Website, as long as you select the
UK, Spain, or France as your territory, since the clip is not posted in the
other localized versions of the Flash-crazy site. The clip is also available
on AtomicGamer,
FileFront,
and Gamer's Hell.

The Shank PAX 2009
Trailer and a Shank PAX
2009 Gameplay Video are both on GameVideos to show off Klei Entertainment's
upcoming PC and Xbox 360 action game where you can bring a knife to a gun fight
if you're sharp enough. As Fat Tony once said, "I don't get mad; I get stabby!"

The BlueTower is filled with ever-more intoxicating aromas today, as MrsBlue is
on some sort of epic baking spree for goodies to bring to our Labor Day
cookouts. She started with cookies, and moved onto a peach pound cake. I think
this is to be followed by brownies, at which point this place is going to seem
like Willie Wonka's.